In a bid to ensure safety of employees amid spike in COVID-19 cases, the Jammu and Kashmir government on Thursday announced the deferment of annual “Darbar Move” of offices from Jammu to Srinagar for the summer session.
However, the government stated that the functioning of the offices will not get affected as files will be moved electronically between both Secretariats in e-Office.
Pertinently, the General Administration Department (GAD) had informed that the move offices observing 5-day week and 6-day week will close at Jammu on 30th April 2021 and 1st May 2021, respectively. All the offices will reopen in the summer capital city of Srinagar on 10th May 2021.
Nonetheless, it was for the second consecutive year that the opening of move offices in Srinagar got delayed in wake of the deadly pandemic. In 2020, the government had announced opening of the move offices here in Srinagar on May 04, which was later deferred till June 15.
This year too amid the spike in COVID-19 cases, the government has formally announced the deferment of the move offices. According to the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), Office of the Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on its official Twitter handle stated that in view of sharply rising cases of COVID in J&K, the government has taken few important decisions to ensure the safety of the employees.
It said that the Darbar move has been deferred because of COVID while the secretariat will function in both Srinagar and Jammu and office functioning will not be affected because of e-office.
“As J&K is witnessing surge in number of Covid cases, the threat it poses to people/ staff on the move and the implementation of eOffice in both the Secretariat, in move offices, it has been decided to defer the #DarbarMove this time,” the Tweet reads.
In another Tweet it said “However, Secretariat will function in both Srinagar & Jammu with staff equitably split between two Secretaries will function from both locations in an equitable manner Office functioning will not be affected as files to move electronically between both Secretariats in eOffice.”
Pertinently, the Government had taken steps to switch to paperless office by rolling out e-office in the moving departments. “As such, most of the official record has been uploaded to the e-office, and training of employees was also conducted. The switch to the online mode will avoid wear and tear as well as loss of official record during the bi-annual transit, besides saving the associated transportation cost,” the officials said—(KNO)
